The Ratings Game

Recently, a number of e-mails have come in regarding our Beer Ratings. No doubt this deluge was due in no small part to the link that the gallant gents at Power Line provided earlier last week. They rate the great American novels. We rate beer. Works for me.

Anyway, let's hit the mailbag.

We start with Gary from Washington:

Appreciate your dedication to tasting beers and to your ratings thereof.

Please consider sampling Labatt Blue out of Canada. It is a pilsner, delicious, and life blood for me.

A link from Power Line led me to your site. I have added it to my blog favorites.

Yours, in the Brotherhood of Beer Lovers,

Jim from California offers a suggestion:

Nice job with the beer ratings. Someone, indeed, has to do such a difficult job.
Might I recommend my nephews' beer to sample. They are a small and growing microbrewery in San Francisco, called Speakeasy. Their best is called "Prohibition Ale", along with an India Pale Ale called "Big Daddy." You can check them out at:

www.goodbeer.com

Orest from Pennsylvania:

I happened upon your site almost by accident. I think the good folks over at Power Line suggested reviewing your list of brews. I'm glad I did. I've bookmarked it. Good stuff.

In looking at your list of brews, I discovered that you have a glaring omission: my favorite, Yeungling lager. If Rolling Rock, another Pa. beer, got a rating of 6 (and it's really overrated), Yeungling should get at least a 14. Hopefully you can pick up a case of Pottsville, Pa.'s finest export somewhere in Minn.

Tim piles on:

If you don't rate Yuengling you lose all credibility. It is, by far, the best American Lager out there. It's the only beer that has unseated Bud for best-seller in any county in the US over the last 10 years. If you haven't had it, you've been deprived.

Michael also finds omissions:

Great God Man!

How could you overlook any representative of Dogfishhead Ale? How about Allagash, or Rogue Half-e-weizen or Rogue Buckwheat Ale? Your list can't possibly be complete without Anchor Brewing's Old Foghorn, or Rogue's Old Crustacean.

All of the above represent the greatest heights to which the noble barley may be raised.

Dave provides a suggestion:

I discovered your beer ratings through a link at Power Line, and found them quite interesting. I noted one of the highest ratings was for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I agree. That was my beer of choice until last year when I discovered Red Seal Ale from North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg, CA. I suggest you give it a try, if you can find it, and I'll be interested how you compare it to the Sierra Nevada brew. In my opinion, it is the best ale I have ever consumed.

And David asks a question:

Way back in the distant past of college, I was given some Mackeson (sp?) Stout from Scotland to taste. I enjoyed it much more than its Irish cousin, Guinness stout, but have not come across it in ages in any store I have been in. Do you know anything aboot it?

I believe that I tried it some years ago at a beer tasting party and have noticed it on occasion at stores. This guy seems to like it:

Because Mackeson makes a great beer, comparable in many ways to Guinness Draught. All I could think of on the first taste of Mackeson Triple stout is the taste of chocolate milk. It was smooth, creamy and wonderful and I enjoyed every taste. The only thing stopping this beer from being perfect for me, is that it's a little to sweet for my every day beer. So I don't think its going to replace my Guinness, but I think I will be getting it when I see it.

These e-mails raise a couple of points that should be addressed.

1. Just because a beer is not on the list does mean that I have not tried it. The vast majority of beers that are included in this ratings list were purchased locally and sampled in my basement bar. The ratings system includes six separate categories (head, smell, color, taste, aftertaste, overall) with different points scales for each one. It's difficult to remember them all when you're sitting in a bar sipping a particular beer and I haven't reached the level of geeky abandon where I feel comfortable whipping out a score sheet and evaluating the beer in a public setting. I have rated a few beers while traveling, but, in addition to the nearly 300 beers that I have rated, there are probably at least one hundred others that I've tasted at some point but not rated.

Yuengling is one of those. I've actually had Yuengling on tap in Key West of all places. It's a good beer, but I don't feel comfortable assigning it a numeric rating without running it through the ratings process. I'll see if I can track it down locally. I do appreciate suggestions for new beers to rate and make every possible effort to include as many beers as possible on the list. Remember, there are a lot of beers out there (Thanks God!) and it could take years to include them all.

2. All ratings are completely subjective based on my impressions of the beer at the time it was rated. My tastes have no doubt changed over the years and beers that I rated highly years ago may no longer be among my favorites. On a few rare occasions, I have gone back and revised the ratings of particular beers when further experience necessitates it.

3. Just because a beer is rated high doesn't mean it's always the right beer. The ratings are based on the overall qualities of the beer and typically the kind of beers that I prefer, heavier and stronger, with more flavor, will have higher ratings. That doesn't mean that these are the only beers I drink or that beers lower scores, say under ten, aren't perfectly appropriate for some situations. A blistering hot day for example call for a lighter, easier drinking brew.

UPDATE-- Dave e-mails again with another beer recommendation and a question:

Another suggestion is North Coast's Old 38 Stout. This is their version of an Irish Stout, and I like it much better than Guinness. One of my preferred beers has always been bock beer that some companies used to put out in the late winter. But it is virtually impossible to find, especially in the west. I recall that many years ago, the Stroh Brewing Company in Detroit (when it was still family owned) would put out a bock that was worth waiting for each year. Coors put out a bock some years back along with their winterfest beer, but they were only so so. If you have any suggestions on a bock, let me know.

I don't know how widely available it is, but the Schell Brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota makes an excellent Caramel Bock as well as a potent Doppel Bock. In addition, they hold an annual Bock Fest at the brewery grounds each February.